Friday, March 27, 2015

Sitting On Top Of The World

It feels like we are overlooking the world. Well, three states at least. We can see both northern Arizona and western Colorado from our perch. 50 mile views. We can see two other campers parked a mile or so off. We have been back and forth between Utah and Arizona many times in the last few weeks. Today, we drove north, committing to Utah. We are quite a ways from the Colorado River, but still this land is managed by Glen Canyon. Someone there decided to cut a new road around the canyon rim. Probably done last year. There was only one tire print on the road we drove out. Not a single foot print seen.

We took the highly not recommended Moki Dugway road up here. After I saw 18-wheelers driving the last time we were here, I had no qualms about driving it while towing. It was built to haul uranium ore after all.

The Moki Dugway

Our Southern Exposure - The View Towards Monument Valley.

We recalled having lots of TV stations here. Now there are 104! Some are duplicates and most are Denver stations. We have been without TV for quite. We recall having good cell coverage. This time only weak analog and an unusable 2 bars of 4G.

Sunday – March 22 – The wind blew like stink over night, so the haze from the loose dirt in Monument Valley was worse this morning, so after enjoying CBS Sunday Morning, we pulled up stakes and headed north. We stopped by the BLM station on Cedar Mesa. The last time we were there Mordak, the Information Denier was running the place and I wanted to see if the attitude was the same. The old building has been replaced with a fancy new stimulus funded one and two men who are quite helpful in directing you to ruins. They did admit that if they read you as one who might damage the ruins they direct you to one of the sacrificial ruins. I liked that. Turned out that one of them was a retired archeologist and knew the area intimately. I was not in the mood for another hazard prone hike so soon, so perhaps we will return next year. We also learned that Germans like to come over here and commit suicide by jumping off the cliffs and leaving BLM to clean up the mess.

Dorothy writes: For several years, I have followed the adventures of The Bayfield Bunch. Its always interesting to follow the adventures of people that enjoying camping the way we do. Today we pulled into the Welcome Center in Blanding for lunch, nap and wifi and happened to park next to Al and Kelly (and Pheebe). I couldn't believe it - after all these years we got to meet a delightful couple that I felt that I knew even though we have never met. Life on the road is fun in many ways.

There was a laundromat across the street from the VC that had a large level parking lot. I decided we could do two weeks of clothes and park there for the night. So we did. Had TV and five bars of 4G. woohoo! By breaking our usual pattern of where to stay, we were rewarded with a delightful drive through the early morning sunlit rocks on the way to Moab the next day.

Monday – March 23 – Our preferred CG in Moab was full, no surprise, besides we could not stay there as long as we wanted due to the 14-day limit. So we went on the other side of the Colorado to a less well buffed CG, but are rewarded with new rocks to view. The sunset here lasted for over an hour due to some heavy clouds drifting through. The rocks changed color at least 6 times.

It was the perfect day for photography, but I was flat out of energy. Even knowing, clouds would be moving in Tuesday, I just could not get myself up for going out after lunch.

On purpose, we have placed ourselves in Moab during the most congested 10 days of the year – The Easter Jeep Safari. The hills will be crawling with thousands of Jeeps. Plus there is the Q equivalent of The Big Tent, with dozens of Jeep equipment vendors showing off their wares.

Political Rant – Moab is in Grand County. The Grand County Council has been taken over by Greenies. They wish to shut down a lot of the biking and Jeeping trails by designating them wilderness. Plain language in the Wilderness Act states the lands must be pristine. Areas that have been mined, used daily for trails for over 50 years, have active gas and oil operations on them hardly qualify as wilderness. Asshats! And I read that NPS will go to permitting Elephant Hill Trail, only 10 a day, including bikes, so we will have to do that when we head south.

Tuesday – March 24 – I read about a canyon that sounded scenic and I wanted to see if we could access it from the river, rather than driving all the way around to Dead Horse Point. So we took Long Canyon up toward Dead Horse and sure enough the dimly printed trail on my map turned out to branch off to Day Canyon. We will make that drive on a day when the weather is more cooperative to photography. Along the way, we re-discovered a parking area near Dead Horse that is almost on top of the world. You have a southern view of Behind The Rocks with the La Sal Mountains in the background. Almost an Alabama Hills view. It offers 3 bars of 4G.

Friday – March 27 – And that’s where we are tonight. Back on top of the world.